Order-file for locomotive-engineers



No. 607,946. Patentd July 26, I898.

A. MCKANNA. ORDER FILE FOR LOGOMOTIVE ENGINEERS.

(Application filed Jvily 30, 1897.)

(No Model.)

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ORDER-FILE FOR LOCOMOTlVE-ENGINEERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 607,946, dated July 26, 1898. Application filed July 30, 1897. Serial No. 646,557. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AMOS MOKANNA, a citizen of the United States, residing at Emporia, in the county of Lyon and State of Kansas, have invented a new and useful Order-File for Locomotive-Engineers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to files, and particularly to an order-file adapted especially for use by locomotive-engineers or under conditions requiring an interchangeable or successive use of a plurality of filing-pins in order that the filed instruments-suoh as bills, orders, and other papers-may be classified.

,As above indicated, the file embodying my invention is particularly designed for use by railway-engineers, who during a trip usually receive more or less running orders which must be executed consecutively or which are successively in effect and abandoned or annuled, and all of these orders must be preserved (those which have not been executed in order that they may be inspected to insure accuracy and those which have been executed or have been superseded in order that they may be subsequently consulted) to insure the safety of the train and justify the actions of the engineer. To provide for this classification of orders, I employ filing-pins each of which is of looped construction, having a shank engaged with asecurin g-plate adapted to be attached by any suit-able means to a base, said securing-plate engaging the shank of the filing-pin between the looped lower end of said pin and a tongue for closing the throat of the hook, whereby vertical displacement of the filing-pin with relation to the securingplate is prevented in one direction by said tongue and in the other direction by the closed end of the loop. In carrying out my invention I may employ a plurality of these filing-pins mounted upon a common base, whether that base is movable to enable the engineer to change its location in the cab or is stationary, and consists of a fixed support, such as the wall or other portion of the locomotive-cab, and to distinguishably designate a plurality of hooks constructed substantially as above indicated the securing plates may be distinguishably colored, whereby orders of one class placed upon one of the hooks are distinguishable from orders of another class engaged with another hook.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will appear in the following description, and the novel features thereof will be particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

In the drawings, Figure l is a perspective view of an order-file constructed in accordance with my invention, the same being shown Similar numerals of reference indicate cor-' responding parts in all the figures of the draw ings.

The preferable embodiment of my invention consists, essentially, of a base to which are fixed duplicate filing-pins, which may be distinguishably designated by plates of different colors threaded upon the shanks of the pins above thelooped or paper-holding portions of the latter, whereby the designatingplates are unconcealed and unobscured by orders or other papers engaged with the filing-pins, said plates forming the means of attachment of the pins to a base.

In the construction illustrated in Fig. 1 the base 2 is movable or portable and consists of a board or equivalent object, to which are attached the distinguishably-designated filingpins, and by suitable means provided for that purpose this base may be suspended upon a projection 13 upon the wall 1 of a locomotivecab or similar fixed object. In Fig. 3, on the other hand, the distinguishably-designated filing-pins are secured to a permanent base consisting of the wall of the cab or its equivalent.

Obviously the construction-of each filingpin is susceptible of numerous modifications; but as it is desirable to employa pin suitable for facilitating the engagement and disengagement of the papers without allowing the accidental displacement thereof I preferably employ a construction (shown in detail in Fig. 2)-which embodies a straight shank arranged parallel with the base and doubled upon itself to form a loop in a plane perpendicular to the base and extended to provide an impaling-needle 10, a holding-arm 8 extending forwardly from the shank at an interval from and approximately in the plane of said loop and having a transversely-offset finger 9 to engage the impaling-needle and thus close the throat of the filing-pin and form an obstacle to prevent the accidental displacement of papers engaged with the pin. This engaging finger 9 is preferably arranged perpendicular to the line of the holding-arm 8 and is not returned or bent rearwardly toward the shank for the reason that it is desirable to displace the impaling-needle laterally without necessitating the backward swinging movement thereof.

Attached to the shank of each filing-pin is a plate, and the plates 3 and 4 illustrated in the drawings, and which may be differently colored, serve to designate the functions of the filing-pins to which they are respectively attached. of securing the filing-pins to the base and are provided with openings engaged by securing-screws. The shank of each filing-pin is threaded through oppositely-extending half eyes or loops 6, formed in the plate, said loops, in the construction illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3, inclusive, being formed by horizontally cutting or slitting the plates, as indicated at 5. In Fig. 4 I have shown a modification of this construction wherein the plate is provided with a series of openings 15, through which the shank 'is extended; but it will be seen that the portions of the plate between said openings are looped or bowed alternately inopposite directions, whereby the shank, which is arranged in the plane of the plate, is adapted to lie parallel with the base to which the filing-pin is secured. Also, in the construction illustrated in the drawings, the filing-pin consists of a single blank of springwire which is folded upon itself at an intermediate point to form an eye 7, which is arranged parallel with the base and is preferably spread to form a broad bearing upon the base to prevent the turning of the shank with relation to the plate. For instance, in Fig. 1, wherein the movable base 2 is employed, the upper filing-pin is arranged sufficiently near the upper end of the base to cause its eye 7, while bearing for a portion of its length upon said base, to project slightly above the upper end of the base, whereby it may be engaged witha-suspending nail or projection 13, thus forming the means whereby the base is suspended upon a stationary object. The sides of the eye 7 are respectively extended to form the shank of the filing-pin and the holding-arm 8, said sides being intertwisted at their point of intersection to prevent distortion of the eye and cause the holding-arm 8 to spring from the plane of the shank and hence occupy a position above the upper edge of the securing-plate, whereby downward displacement of the filing-pin with relation to the plate is prevented. Upward These plates constitute the means displacement of said pin is prevented by the looped lower end of the same, which is located below the lower edge of the plate. Thus it will be seen that the securing-plate engages the shank of the filing pin between the planes of said holding or closing arm and the looped end of the pin to prevent relative displacement of the pin and securingplate, whetherthe latter is attached to a fixed object or not. Also, in practice I prefer to provide the free end of the impaling-needle above the plane of the holding-arm 8 with a returnbend 11, terminating in a sharpened point 12.

Inasmuch as the colors red and white are recognized in the railway-service as representing, respectively, danger and safety, I have found it expedient in carrying out my invention to adopt these colors as those by which the securing-plates are distinguished, and the specified arrangement of the plates upon the shanks of the filing-pins above the planes of the loops which are formed between the shanks and impaling-needles of the filingpins provides for the permanent exposure of these plates by locating the orders or other papers (indicated in the drawings at 14:) with their upper edges but slightly, if any, above the lower edges of the plates. Thus by placing unexecuted orders or those which are to be executed or those which are of special importance upon the filing-pin which is distinguishably designated as dangerous and filing the less important orders or those which have been executed upon that pin which is designated by a safety distinguishingmark the engineer is constantly reminded of the orders requiring attention, or, in other words, the orders are so classified as to avoid confusion in the execution thereof.

Other advantages of the construction disclosed will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and it will be understood that various changes in the form, proportion, and the minor details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of this invention.

Having described my invention, what I claim is- A train-order file having a looped filing-pin consisting of a shank extended at its lower end to form a loop and a filing-needle, and provided at an interval from said loop with a forwardly-extending holding-arm to close the throat of the loop, and a securing-plate provided with eyes through which said shank is threaded, and being arranged between the planes of said holding-arm and loop, and extending from the former to the latter, to prevent relative displacement of the pin and securing-plate, substantially as specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

AMOS MCKANNA.

Witnesses:

ELIHU MCKANNA, WILLIAM S. JAY. 

